8K fartlek

I got up a bit late this morning and was dragging. I went to the track and it was windy and a bit chilly at 2.2C. But the wind...ughhhhh. I knew I was running a bit too late to really do the workout justice, and on top of that I did one warm-up lap and felt iffy. So I decided I'd head home and get the kids off to school and do it later, or not at all. I was pretty mad at myself and grumpy that I hadn't tried harder to get out of bed earlier and that I wasn't willing to put up with a bit of wind. 

After getting the kids off to school I felt like I really wanted to try again, so I dressed in shorts and threw some sweats on top and got on the bus to the U to work out at the indoor track before work. I knew then I'd be a bit late to work, but my hours are flexible and I figured I would just stay late. That ended up working out very well. 

At the indoor track I did 5 laps to get warmed up, with strides on the last lap. Each lap is 292.608m, so it was a bit less than 1.5km for the warm-up, but I felt good and ready to go. My legs felt pretty well recovered from Saturday's half as well as from yesterday's 6km. I calculated that 27 laps is 7.9km on the nose, so I decided to do 3 laps fast then alternate 2 medium 2 fast until the finish. That worked out very well, too. 

I did my first 3 laps and it felt very good and fluid. I am taking my coach's advice to heart and working very hard on keeping my posture good with hips tucked under as much as possible. I really can feel the difference when I'm doing that. The first 3 laps were in 5:03.4, which equates to 5:46/km. Nice! Yeah, that's slow compared to 1km intervals at the pace I used to be able to do, but I cannot think that way. For now, that is faster than I've been going, and so I'm happy with it. The remaining 2 laps medium/2 laps fast (6 more) were very consistent at 3:23.3-3:25.0 for the fasts (which works out to 2:53.7-2:55.2 for 500m) and 3:34.6-3:44.1 (3:03.4-3:11.5 for 500m equivalent) for the mediums. Total time for 7.9km was 47:28, or 48:03.5 for the 8km equivalent. That is almost a minute faster than last week, and I am VERY happy about that. I wish I could've gone under 48, but that will come. 

I sat a fair amount at work this morning, looking under the microscope at zebrafish embryos, and my legs felt quite good. I was a bit stiff, with maybe the teensiest amount of soreness (maybe the weird soreness?). I'm not concerned though - I feel I am recovering well and actually kinda wish I was walking tomorrow. But I'm cross-training and will do 5x1km intervals Friday and 12K Saturday, so better to have the day off tomorrow!

My favorite part about this morning was that when I went to the locker room to shower and change before work, a middle-aged woman (who I know by sight from working out on campus at the Field House) who was on the elliptical while I was on the track said, "You're really fast! You were doing 9 minute miles!" I thanked her, but protested that they were more like 9:15s, but it sure made me feel good to hear the compliment. She said she gets bored on the elliptical so watches/times the people on the track. Kinda fun! Later, on the way up to work, I calculated that my 1:40 laps were about 9:10/mile pace, so she was pretty close. 

Garmin data here.